Melissa George: hunter to Hunted

The actress "fought hard" to win the role of Samantha Hunter.

19 November 2012 — 3:00am

Melissa George was so determined to get the role of Samantha Hunter in the BBC spy drama Hunted she told her family and friends she would be spending half of last year filming in London and Morocco. Before she had the job.

''They were like, 'You got the job?' And I had to say, 'No, not yet.' But luckily they gave it to me,'' the 36-year-old Australian says. ''But I fought hard for it. When you hear you're up against an actress from Holland, one from France and Sweden, you realise you have no control over your destiny. You can only do your best.''

The series follows a spy who returns to duty after an attempt on her life she suspects was planned by someone within her own agency. It was created by Frank Spotnitz, the writer-producer behind The X Files.

The role, George says, was physically demanding, with extensive fight scenes and George performing most of her own stunts. ''I was dreading the action [scenes] because I don't like to feel the pain,'' she says, ''but at the same time if you want to commit to a part, it's the only way, otherwise you come off looking like a fraud and I'm just not interested in that any more.''

Committed … Melissa George plays Sam Hunter in Hunted.

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Last week the BBC announced it would not air a second season, although there is a chance it will continue on its US broadcaster, Cinemax. George says she would happily return but would equally be happy with another exotic filming location. ''I met the love of my life [French businessman Jean-David Blanc] filming in London,'' she says. ''I always look at these things and say, 'What is it going to bring me?' And obviously I was meant to be there.''

George is still basking in the afterglow of The Slap, the award-winning ABC drama based on Christos Tsiolkas's novel. Her performance as Rosie drew wide acclaim. ''I've been waiting my entire life to come back and change people's minds about Home and Away,'' she says. ''Not taking anything away from that, but if somebody gives you something in life, you use it.''

Our interview was conducted before George lambasted Channel Seven's The Morning Show for ignoring her recent work and focusing on Home and Away,

but George's gentle manner and her acknowledgment of the part Home and Away has played in her career suggests the issue was not with her own past, but how The Morning Show handled it.

''My real pleasure and my real sense of accomplishment is when Australia recognises me,'' she says. ''It's great that people talk about

The Slap, it was an outstanding piece of work. Nobody insults me by talking about what I did 20 years ago, and I don't talk about what they did 20 years ago.''

In the wake of The Morning Show drama, George may have momentarily walked away from Australia but she has not walked away from her past. Her Silver Logie Awards - which she won in 1994 and 1995 for her work on Home and Away and also in 2012 for her work on The Slap - sit in her Paris apartment.

''They get a polish every week,'' she says.

''I am living in the 8th [arrondissement, a suburb of Paris] but they are my piece of Australia.''